After taking a look at the screenshots displayed either in my gallery or in 's galleries, a lot of Deviants are asking me what is Blackbox and how (and why) should they use it. And it's a good thing they show interest, because after a period of hibernation, due to many factors (mostly developers dropping out) Blackbox is back with a vengeance.Well, Blackbox is a shell for Windows or a window manager for Linux, the styles (themes) being interchangeable between the two platforms, something unique in computing. In this essay I will only talk about the Windows flavor, since it's much more flexible than its Linux counterpart.What is a shell? Well, it's the dressing over a cake, the clothing over a body, the greenery covering a bush. Every operating system has a shell. The Windows' native shell is Explorer, which is not only a file browser, like most of you may think. Delete Explorer and Windows crash. It's a fine shell, especially in the case of Windows 7, but it's heavy, slow, with very few options.Over the years a lot of alternative shells have been developed to make for Explorer's (and, thus, Windows') shortcomings. Litestep, Blackbox, Serenade, Talisman, Aston, WinStep, DesktopX, are just a few. Some of them, like Blackbox and Litestep, are free, while some others, like Aston and DesktopX, are commercial programs.Blackbox is unique among them, in that it offers very specialized and rare options. Here is just a few of the many things this shell can do:

1) Colors and textures change on the fly with each style (theme) switch. No need to look around for third party apps that "look well" with or match each specific theme. 2) Windows decorations are embedded in Blackbox' modus operandi and also offer colors and textures that change with each theme switch  again, no need to look around for third party (and often expensive) apps. 3) Blackbox comes with a plethora of plugins (think of them as widgets, although they are much more than that) that are also part of the change theme/change everything philosophy. Some are so powerful that let you create docks, wharfs, audio players, wallpaper viewers, system meters and a lot more within a few minutes. No programming experience required! 4) Blackbox' desktop is alive. You just drop things on it and they become wallpaper or whatever. 5) Blackbox is the lightest shell there is. This means more speed, more power. 6) Themeing is relatively easy and anyone can create their own styles using a simple text editor like Notepad (although Blackbox does have its own editor, BBNote) and a color picker. Again, no programming or Photoshopping required  although you CAN use graphic files in your elements, if you so wish. 7) Blackbox creates its own backgrounds, if it senses you haven't picked any. Or, you can create wallpapers of any texture and color using its build-in mechanisms. Piece of cake. 8) Blackbox themes can include 3dcc configurations in the style file, which means all window colors change with each theme switch to match the rest of the elements, without the need to call up individual 3dcc files.

You can get the latest (and best) Blackbox build from blackboxzero.net I suggest to download the nightly build; it's quite stable under 7 or XP and includes the latest improvements. Or, you can download any of my latest themes that include full packages with instructions.If you need more info, I suggest you read my tutorials:pitkon.deviantart.com/journal/… tutorial part I - the shellpitkon.deviantart.com/journal/… tutorial part II - the pluginspitkon.deviantart.com/journal/… tutorial part III - the stylesThey are pretty much outdated by now (I MUST find time to bring them up to date... lol) but they will give you a general idea.And, of course, feel free to ask if you need help or instructions

Should try this, since I always customized Windows in some way. Win7 is so resources hungry...and limited! Admit I was a bit scared off by the instructions in the time XP reigned. Hope to recover from my nerdy nature (only computers wise ). Thanks for the efforts in putting this up!

Blackbox doesn't care if you use XP or 7, you could be using Windows 95... lol. It changes looks and the way things work, so what's under the hood doesn't matter. But I do understand your reluctance. On the other hand, I am using on one of my puters Blackbox over Win 7 Ultimate with no issues whatsoever. What issues did YOU encounter? I bet we could tackle them...

Whoa. Glad to see this is still around, I thought it was dead. I used to use it in XP and create themes and styles for it, but it did NOT like 7. So I'll give it another shot, this was my favorite shell for Windows. So much lighter and smoother, and freeware.. easy to program. Can't wait to get started again.

you have to start from scratch LOL ... i think i only instll it proper ten when i download one of your themes and install it it wound come up ! its in the box that says red, green ,blue but nothing changed ...

Install one of my themes - say, Dream On. Unzip the file under C:\ and rename Blackbox Dream On to just Blackbox. Double click on Blackbox.exe to get a first impression. To really use it as a shell, right click on the desktop to bring up the menu and then go Configuration/Install/Install. Reboot and you are there. Simple?

its cool , i'm luving it , and thanks for introducing blackbox . its really awesome and so attractive , cause people like different themes to their pc's so this will be vry helpful , any ways thanks once again